Bill Ayers: Yeah, I wrote “Dreams from My Father”

posted at 9:08 pm on March 28, 2011 by Allahpundit

Via the American Thinker. I think John Hawkins is spot on in detecting the sarcasm here, but if you’re inclined to believe that Ayers is The One’s ghostwriter, you’re bound to detect a “deeper truth” in his tone. In fact, Ayers has been baiting people with this same corny line about splitting the royalties for ages. Back in October 2009, a conservative blogger spotted him in Reagan Airport and approached him. As soon as she mentioned that she was conservative, he offered, unprompted, that he had written the book, that Michelle Obama had put him up to it, and, yes, that he’d be happy to split the royalties with the blogger if she could prove it. When she countered that she thought he had at least edited it, he egged her on by insisting that no, he had written the darned thing. I think he enjoys mocking people who push this idea and enjoys it doubly when they can’t detect the mockery. In fact, I’d bet that this is his stock response anytime the book is mentioned in his presence — insisting that he wrote it to see if the listener laughs and then toying with them if they seem credulous. But as I say, your mileage may vary.

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And believe him or not, Ayers wins either way: if he’s lying, he keeps the right-wing blogs and press pushing this meme; if he’s not, it’s a warning to Obama that it would take just one press conference to unravel Obama’s lies.

I don’t think Ayers wrote it…and it seems he’s joking here, although I confess, a big a d-bag as Ayers is always hard to figure out. But the memoirs in question lacked enough anti-American vitriol to have possible be penned by him.

Under water grottos, caverns
Filled with apes
That eat figs.
Stepping on the figs
That the apes
Eat, they crunch.
The apes howl, bare
Their fangs, dance,
Tumble in the
Rushing water,
Musty, wet pelts
Glistening in the blue.

Yes, I think he’s being sarcastic, and yes, I think he wrote it. Liars often use this faux mockery tactic.

American Elephant on March 28, 2011 at 9:15 PM

yeap. Just like the left uses the BC issue. They act like we are stupid by telling the truth and then covering it by laughing….The problem is most people are easily duped because they don’t like to be mocked. Ayers wrote the Book. No doubt in my mind and he is toying with people like allah.

It’s the same tactic they use with the birth certificate; they can stop the story any time they want with the simplest of proofs, but it plays to their advantage to keep it going. It substantiates their narrative that they’re the only viable alternative to a raving mob of ignorant rubes.
It’s bait! Just walk away!

I have no problem believing he wrote it. The evidence out there is fairly compelling, especially without more of Obama’s work for comparison. But I also imagine he’d say things like this whether he wrote it or not. He just seems to enjoy messing with people. And even if he did write it, I don’t imagine there’s any proof, and editing probably is more accurate.

A few reasons…I read “DomF” (gotta get in the minds of the political enemy) and suffered through some of Ayers’ writings, and remember when this issue fist came up…I believe Obama didn’t write that on his own for sure, but in general, Ayers is such an egomaniac he would have had no problem throwing The One aside and flat-out proving he wrote it.

Lew there isn’t a scintilla of evidence Barack Obama was born in Kenya. The evidecne that Ayers co-wrote Dreams is quite persuasive. It’s not conclusive, but it’s compelling to anyone who investigates it. It makes Obama a fraud as an intellectual. Like his denial of knowing the real Jeremiah Wright, it makes him a liar in distancing himself from his radical associations. Don’t compare the two.

I still shake my head that we elected a president who palled around with this guy. He tried to blow people up, fer crissakes! And that just wasn’t a deal-breaker for Barry’s friendship. It still astonishes me. There isn’t an honest shrink in this country who wouldn’t tell you Ayers is a complete sociopath, and the left — and the president — just love him. He’s Charles Manson with a faculty appointment. The mind reels.

Ayers was an anti-war protester. How can his prodigy get away with starting a new war in Libya? That can’t sit well, particularly during a tough economy and I’m sure that Ayers wants to keep all of those royalties for himself.

I love stories like this because it forces white conservatives to choose between their reptilian, Obama-hating instincts, and common sense. It’s just like the birth certificate. A good percentage of you just can’t help yourselves and are simply willing to look stupid, because the price of giving Obama credit for anything is just too high. So you get stuff like this:

I’ve read the case for Ayers having written Obama’s book and I have to say, I was impressed. It is pretty strong. I think the sarcasm is a smoke bomb.

Others of you just split the difference and say something like, “Ayers at least helped Obama edit it”, or “I’m not saying he’s not a citizen, but where is the birth certificate?”

Obama is playing you like fools because you’re simply less intelligent, and you’re either too prejudiced or not self-aware enough (or both) to realize it.

It makes Obama a fraud as an intellectual. Like his denial of knowing the real Jeremiah Wright, it makes him a liar in distancing himself from his radical associations. Don’t compare the two.

Ted Torgerson on March 28, 2011 at 9:28 PM

Yes, BO denied truly knowing a man he named as his “mentor,” and Ayers was “just a guy in my neighborhood.” He lied about his long time affiliation with Ayers. Now we find that it’s very possible that Ayers was his ghost writer for at least one of his dreadful drivels.

Calypso Louie is another Hyde Park resident – a long time associate of BO’s. Then there’s Rezko, Blago, etc., etc., etc.

The joke here with Ayres is not that he wrote it. But that he knows it was ghost written and this is his way of winking and saying that.

Somebody ghost wrote obama’s books. He is neither smart enough, nor industrious enough to have penned both books. Remember, when obama was president of the Harvard Law Review he left with the dubious distinction of having been the only president of that review’s history who never bothered to write an article himself. If he couldn’t even put pen to paper to write an article, he sure as hell didn’t write two full books. That takes nose-to-the-grindstone character he doesn’t have. Ayres, now in obama’s shadow after being a mentor of sorts, is reminding us of that.

Somebody ghost wrote obama’s books. He is neither smart enough, nor industrious enough to have penned both books.

Oh come on. You really think Dreams of My Father is that good?

Remember, when obama was president of the Harvard Law Review he left with the dubious distinction of having been the only president of that review’s history who never bothered to write an article himself.

Hm. Do you guys have a credible link backing that assertion up? It sounds like one of those things you guys just make up because it sounds nice. The Harvard Law Review has a limited amount of space each year, and most of the articles are penned by outside academics. I’d be pretty surprised if the Pres. wrote a full article every year until Barack came around.

If he couldn’t even put pen to paper to write an article, he sure as hell didn’t write two full books. That takes nose-to-the-grindstone character he doesn’t have.

Writing two books takes “nose-to-the-grindstone character?”

Ayres, now in obama’s shadow after being a mentor of sorts, is reminding us of that.

Ted, it doesn’t matter whether one, or both, are true or not. The tactic is to bait us into wasting our time with zany looking trivia while this bunch of thugs drags our country down the rabbit hole into oblivion with their policies. Their strategy is to provide validation to their narrative of the opposition as ignorant conspiracy freaks. They don’t want any opposing arguments taken seriously so they build the image of their opponents as non-serious people.
They can’t handle the message so they go after the messenger. It’s all they have!

Ayers was an anti-war protester. How can his prodigy get away with starting a new war in Libya? That can’t sit well, particularly during a tough economy and I’m sure that Ayers wants to keep all of those royalties for himself.

I love stories like this because it forces white conservatives to choose between their reptilian, Obama-hating instincts, and common sense. It’s just like the birth certificate. A good percentage of you just can’t help yourselves and are simply willing to look stupid, because the price of giving Obama credit for anything is just too high. So you get stuff like this:

I’ve read the case for Ayers having written Obama’s book and I have to say, I was impressed. It is pretty strong. I think the sarcasm is a smoke bomb.

Others of you just split the difference and say something like, “Ayers at least helped Obama edit it”, or “I’m not saying he’s not a citizen, but where is the birth certificate?”

Obama is playing you like fools because you’re simply less intelligent, and you’re either too prejudiced or not self-aware enough (or both) to realize it.

underceij on March 28, 2011 at 9:33 PM

Can I ask you a question? I’m going to presume you’re a black guy, given that Googling your uncommon handle brings up a Photobucket album with photos of you. Anyhoo – given that 99.9% of the criticism of Obama that’s voiced has absolutely zilch to do with his skin color, what exactly do you hope to gain by perpetuating this “you only hate Obama because he’s black” meme? Does it really hurt you so much that the first black President has turned out to be such a catastrophic failure?

FWIW, I really was impressed by the case for Ayers having written “Dreams.” It has nothing to do with me being white, or a reptile (is that some racial epithet that I’m not aware of?), or stupid.

Obama is playing you like fools because you’re simply less intelligent

I take it you haven’t been around here long. This isn’t YouTube son, you’re going to have to come up with something a little more sophisticated than that.

My grandfather had 12 books published. I watched him write some of those books. Obama is too lazy to write books. I never helieved he knew how to actually work. He doesn’t even have Cabinet meetings. How does that happen?

If God ever wants to send me to hell he’ll make crr6 and I cellies and force me to listen to his/her infinite defenses of: why the mandate is constitutional because under the N&P clause Congress can legislate pretty much – anything; or why any statements that are anti-Obama are punishable by death because, well just because he/she is so darned smart and the rest of us just, well, aren’t.

Once elected president of the Harvard Law Review –more of a popularity than a literary contest — Obama contributed not one signed word to the HLR or any other law journal. As Matthew Franck has pointed out in National Review Online, “A search of the HeinOnline database of law journals turns up exactly nothing credited to Obama in any law review anywhere at any time.”

A 1990 New York Times profile on Obama’s election as Harvard’s first black president caught the eye of agent Jane Dystel. She persuaded Poseidon, a small imprint of Simon & Schuster, to authorize a roughly $125,000 advance for Obama’s proposed memoir.

With advance in hand, Obama repaired to Chicago where he dithered. At one point, in order to finish without interruption, he and wife Michelle decamped to Bali. Obama was supposed to have finished the book within a year. Bali or not, advance or no, he could not. He was surely in way over his head.

According to a surprisingly harsh 2006 article by liberal publisher Peter Osnos, which detailed the “ruthlessness” of Obama’s literary ascent, Simon & Schuster canceled the contract. Dystel did not give up. She solicited Times Book, the division of Random House at which Osnos was publisher. He met with Obama, took his word that he could finish the book, and authorized a new advance of $40,000.

Then suddenly, somehow, the muse descended on Obama and transformed him from a struggling, unschooled amateur, with no paper trail beyond an unremarkable legal note and a poem about fig-stomping apes, into a literary superstar.

It was a lead up to a valid point. Had nothing to do with Sharke caring or not caring about race and everything to do with setting up the point.

kim roy on March 28, 2011 at 10:11 PM

Right. Sharke’s point was that underceij is hung up on race, and Sharke’s lead up to that point consisted of him inexplicably commenting on underceij’s race.

In short, it looked like this “1) OMG YOU’RE BLACK!—–> 2)Why do you care so much about race?????”

Funny stuff.

crr6 on March 28, 2011 at 10:23 PM

You really did miss the point, didn’t you? Not a surprise, as in your original reply you didn’t quote the “money shot”. Allow me:

Can I ask you a question? I’m going to presume you’re a black guy, given that Googling your uncommon handle brings up a Photobucket album with photos of you. Anyhoo – given that 99.9% of the criticism of Obama that’s voiced has absolutely zilch to do with his skin color, what exactly do you hope to gain by perpetuating this “you only hate Obama because he’s black” meme? Does it really hurt you so much that the first black President has turned out to be such a catastrophic failure?

Now what *I* read out of that was that Sharke was asking a black man (or what he believed to be a black man) whether he believes that it is beneficial to the poster *as a black man* to continue on with the “any criticism is racism” meme.

Which you seem to be gleefully abetting.

Or you just can’t catch the point that Sharke was attempting to make.

So either way you are a race-baiter who hides behind the skirts of the race card or just an idiot.

And just to support my choice of you being an idiot, it was underceij who brought up “the race card” first.

Now what *I* read out of that was that Sharke was asking a black man (or what he believed to be a black man) whether he believes that it is beneficial to the poster *as a black man* to continue on with the “any criticism is racism” meme.

*You* are a lefty who sees racism under every bed and behind every bush. Not persuasive.

Now what *I* read out of that was that Sharke was asking a black man (or what he believed to be a black man) whether he believes that it is beneficial to the poster *as a black man* to continue on with the “any criticism is racism” meme.

*You* are a lefty who sees racism under every bed and behind every bush. Not persuasive.

misterpeasea on March 28, 2011 at 10:47 PM

I’m a lefty? BWAHAAHHAHAAHHAH

Wait.. hold on… have to tell the husband I just got called a lefty…

Sorry for the delay. We were too busy laughing. *wipes away tears* Thanks for that on a dull, rainy Monday.

Right, he published a case note or something (which I believe Larry Tribe contemporaneously praised).

But my question was, do you have a credible source for the claim that Obama was the first ever Pres. of Harvard Law Review not to publish an article? That’s a pretty sweeping claim. There should be a link somewhere for that, right?

No, not really. But to write a book, one needs to be good with words, know how to structure sentences and paragraphs, and how to build story out of hundreds of pages of notes. That takes intelligence. Obama has never demonstrated any aptitude in those departments. The man can’t even speak without a teleprompter without lapses into ums, and ahhhs, and other stalling motions while his brain tries to catch up.

Hm. Do you guys have a credible link backing that assertion up? It sounds like one of those things you guys just make up because it sounds nice.

Yah, I just make that stuff up. If you bothered to do any reading on your messiah, you would have already known this universally-acclaimed bit of trivia about Barack.

Writing two books takes “nose-to-the-grindstone character?”

You have obviously never written, nor published, a book. Ask anyone who has.